Snowball Earth Research Paper

Snowball earth is when the Earth was covered by ice and snow from pole to pole for long periods of time in the past. The average temperature on the surface was about -50° and at the equator it was about -20°, which is roughly the temperature of Antarctica today. This is because the solar radiation from the Sun is reflected back into space due to the icy surface of the Earth. The oceans play a major role on the temperature fluctuation associated with day and night and because the oceans have a layer of ice over them, the temperature fluctuations would be greatly enhanced. Because of all the ice on the surface, the climate on snowball earth would be similar to Mars. Although there is a thick layer of ice on the surface, the atmosphere still transports
This snowball earth is dubbed as “Marinoan” because of glacial sediments found in South Australia by famous Antarctic explorer and geologist, Sir Douglas Mawson. Sedimentary deposits from this global glaciation are found on almost every continent which supports the hypothesis that all the continents were once altogether. The oldest ice age was about 2.2 billion years ago, which is roughly the half the age of the Earth. The glacial sedimentary deposits were mostly in South Africa but this is still represents a snowball earth because of paleomagnetic evidence. The magnetism on the deposits suggests they were deposited closer to the equator. This snowball earth is commonly referred to as Makganyene because its glacial deposits were mainly in South Africa and it is generally referred to as the period when there was a rise in “free” oxygen, the most profound revolution of Earth’s surface in history. There have also been other traces of glaciation in places like central North America, northern Europe and similar deposits in Newfoundland, Canada. A snowball earth has been suggested for each of those places but the evidence is